How Covid laid bare the ugliness at the heart of fast fashion

‘They forced us to do night shifts to finish our work before lockdown started – then they did not give us our salary. They said we’d get it once the factory re-opened. Later they gave us only half the salary for a full month’s work. I called them many times. I told them my house rent is due. I have no money for food, we did a full month’s work before lockdown… you owe us that money. I called them again and again. They did not pick up our calls… I felt sick. I have to keep working, even when I am ill. It is compulsory. They behave so roughly that it is unbearable, still I have to work. They bad mouth me and I used to cry but even when crying I cannot stop working, we have to meet our production targets.’

These are the words of a garment worker from Bangladesh. We can’t give her name to protect her from possible reprisals in the workplace.

As Covid-19 swept across the world in early 2020, fashion brands were quick to respond. Despite the fact that they had already placed binding contracts with suppliers in countries like Bangladesh, India, Cambodia and Myanmar, they immediately sent emails demanding discounts, delayed payment terms or even outright cancellation. Things like an 80% cut in the price, and payment only to be made in six months’ time were not uncommon.

Credit: Thomas Cristofoletti/University of Nottingham

The supplier factories had already had to pay out for the raw materials for the styles specified in the contracts. In some cases the work was already completed and the clothes were already on their way by ship, or even sitting in port.

And we know that when fashion brands mistreat their suppliers, it’s often the workers who pay the price.

As another worker told us:

‘During lockdown my family’s situation was very bad. At work in the first week they told us to take 8 days leave. When I went to the office on the eighth day, they said they have extended the leave for another seven days. This went on for almost two months… I had lost my job. It was hard to keep going in those days. I could not afford to give proper food to my daughter, let alone pay her school fees.’

Going back to 2020, Transform Trade immediately launched a campaign calling on the biggest UK fashion brands to honour their contracts and keep paying garment workers. An amazing 16,700 people joined together to bombard brands like Marks & Spencer, Primark, Matalan, John Lewis and Next with emails.

Despite many challenges – customer service staff were often furloughed so some emails didn’t get a response – our message did get through, and we were able to record the responses of the brands in our tracker here.

And there’s no doubt that our campaign – and the work we did to publicise the situation with other like-minded organisations – helped to shine a spotlight on the brands and in some cases may have stopped things getting worse.

But it was clear that this behaviour by fashion brands was nothing new. It followed a pattern whereby retailers abuse their power and make unfair purchasing practices the norm.

And that’s why we’re now looking at how we can deal with the problem at the root – by calling for a Fashion Watchdog – or Garment Trading Adjudicator to give it its technical name – which would regulate UK retailers’ treatment of their suppliers.